October 13 2020
Crushed vs Diced vs Whole Peeled
Making fresh tomato sauce is easier than you might think, but it is important to understand which tomatoes to choose for the most delicious results. Utilizing the right tomatoes will make the difference in flavor for all tomato-based dishes, not just pasta sauce.
Most people normally choose between crushed, diced, and whole peeled tomatoes based on what they feel more comfortable using, and the decision often stems from what size of tomato pieces they prefer in the final dish. While this is important, the real choice should be based on the initial thickness of the tomato product and which tomato is more suited to the length of cooking time for the recipe.
The pieces of tomato in the jar contain the natural juices, and they have not been thickened like the puree that they are packed in. The more pieces in the jar and the larger the piece, the thinner the finished tomato product. Whole peeled tomatoes are the thinnest, diced are a little thicker, and crushed are the thickest of all.
How to choose the right tomato:
- For a slow-cooked Bolognese sauce, choose whole peeled tomatoes. The long cooking time will slowly thicken the tomato sauce and break down the pieces.
- If you are making chili that will cook for 30 to 40 minutes, diced tomatoes will work best.
- If you want to make a quick, fresh-flavored tomato sauce with basil, choose the crushed tomatoes. You will only need to cook the sauce for about 20 minutes to get the right thickness and a balanced flavor.
What Happens If You Choose The Wrong Tomato?
Everyone loves tomatoes because they add a sour and sweet balance to our dishes. If you added a thicker tomato product, like crushed tomatoes, to a long cooking sauce, the end result will be too thick and sweet. You’ll find yourself fighting the thickness, adding water to thin out the sauce, which will diminish the rich flavors you could have achieved if you started out with a thinner tomato.
The best way to choose the right tomatoes for your recipe should be based on the cooking time:
- Under 20 minutes – Crushed tomatoes
- Between 20-40 minutes – Diced tomatoes
- Over 40 minutes – Whole peeled tomatoes
Jovial Tomatoes
Why do we add puree to our tomatoes? In tomato manufacturing, it is said that the quality of the finished product is actually determined by how talented the packer is at making puree. In our facility, when the tomatoes are crushed or cut into dices, we collect the juices that are produced and cook these juices down with no added ingredients, to the thickness that balances out the type of tomato. Why not pack tomatoes in their own juices instead of using puree? The tomato juices are very pale and watery, so concentrating them to the right thickness enhances the flavors of the final product and gives you more value because we’ve done some of the work for you.
Jovial tomatoes are just that, tomatoes with no added salt or additives. We choose not to add calcium chloride, which keeps tomato dices firm even throughout cooking, because we believe additives have off-flavors, and although safe in small amounts, we think a lifetime of additives is not optimal for your body. We also do not add citric acid because our tomatoes are grown on small farms. When they are harvested, they are transported in small crates right to the packing facility, which is just a few miles away. Citric acid is used to correct defects in the raw material, but by hand-sorting our tomatoes and only using the best fresh raw material, we do not need it. Garden tomatoes are the best, but when cooler weather arrives, you can rest assured that within each jar of jovial tomatoes, we’ve done our best to capture the essence of summer flavor.
